SK Telecom, Stepping Further Towards the AI World with NUGU

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already a hot potato in the ICT industry. Various companies from all different fields are developing AI related technologies or already providing relevant services. Why are so many companies focusing on AI? By efficiently utilizing AI, companies can expect sales increase or user expansion, and being more cost conscious on previous work load. Usual consumers will easily encounter AI as a personal assistant. SK Telecom’s ‘NUGU,’ Amazon’s ‘Alexa’ and many well-known AI platforms are already placed deep inside our daily life after its launch.

Furthermore launching new services and new devices, AI technology is developing for the convenience of users for them to take good quality photos and easily edit it. As SK Telecom combined its AI platform ‘NUGU’ to its navigation service ‘T Map’, many mobile applications are utilizing AI technologies. Not only does AI create new services, but it also applies to a variety of mobile apps and services that are already in use, and users are exposed to AI services naturally. If such convenience is enhanced, it is natural that the service will be used more frequently. This is why international companies such as Google, Microsoft, IBM, and Apple are trying to develop AI technology and spread it to other companies.

In line with the latest trend, SK Telecom has opened a new chapter in securing 'voice data', an essential element of AI evolution. SK Telecom has been able to improve the user experience of its AI platform 'NUGU' and thanks to the continuous increase of users, it exceeded 100 million monthly. The key to achieving 100 million monthly amount of conversation was in SK Telecom's strategy to nurture the AI ecosystem including SK Telecom’s services; T Map, kids phones, set-top boxes, and other areas.

SK Telecom has topped 3 million monthly users of its AI-based speaker NUGU at end-February. The total number of active users for NUGU grew to 3.63 million in February. SK Telecom aims to reach 5 million monthly active users by year-end. Hence, SK Telecom has an overwhelming competitiveness in terms of size compared to its competitors. The number of monthly users is about 6% of the whole population in Korea. In general, the IT industry evaluates that if monthly users exceed 1 million, it 'successfully launched in the market', and if it exceeds 3 million, 'the service secured a continuous and long-term growth engine'.

The eruptive growth of actual users of NUGU has been a meaningful milestone for SK Telecom to step more deeply inside the AI industry. By consistently evolving NUGU, SK Telecom plans to broaden the service area to not only navigation services but Smart homes, autonomous driving etc. SK Telecom is already making significant performances in those areas by bedding SK Telecom’s smart home services in the newly building residences and succeeding in the world’s first cooperative driving with autonomous cars. By enhancing the AI performance with secured data, SK Telecom plans to create a circular ecosystem extending the service areas. Stay tuned for the future of cutting-edge AI, drawn by SK Telecom!